High and Low

Tengoku no jigoku

Dir. Akira Kurosawa

Japan 1963 | Black & white | 143 mins | Cert 12

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa

Based on an Ed McBain crime novel, High and Low tells the gripping story of a high-stakes corporate kidnapping that goes wrong when a chauffeur’s son, thought to be the son of a businessman, is mistakenly abducted. Kurosawa’s usual compositional brilliance serves this tale of moral uncertainty exceedingly well, with Toshiro Mifune bringing great depth to his character.